You have a 3D printer. Now make it earn.

Five things have to happen before money comes in. Here they are in order, with every button you press along the way.

Written for somebody who has printed a few things for friends and wants to start charging. No business experience assumed, and nothing here needs a second printer.

What you need to begin

One printer, the spools you already have, and a free workspace. Nothing is bought until you have been paid at least once.

Step 1

Tell the software about your printer

So it knows when a job finishes, what is still running and which machine is free. The printer keeps printing exactly as it does now.

The printers page, with the controls these steps name numbered on it

Add a printer

Every order is priced on a machine. Add each printer once, with what an hour of it costs you.

  1. In the menu, open Printers.
  2. Press Add.
  3. Give it a Printer name you will recognise, for example A1 #1.
  4. Choose the Vendor / brand and the Model.
  5. Want live status from the printer? Switch on Live telemetry and enter its IP address (optional). A Bambu or a Flashforge Adventurer 5M also needs its Access code and Serial number, both on the printer’s screen.
  6. In Manual hourly rate (/hr), enter what an hour of this printer costs you. Or set it to 0 and fill in Purchase price and Expected lifetime (hours), and the app works the hour out.
  7. Press Register. The printer appears in the list.

Worth knowing: If saving fails, check how many printers your plan allows on the Plan tab. Live status also needs the telemetry agent on a computer in your workshop.

Connect printers for live status

Our servers cannot reach your workshop network. A small program on a computer there reads the printers and sends their status here.

  1. In the menu, open Workspace, then Settings.
  2. Open the Agent tab.
  3. Press Generate setup command.
  4. Copy the line for your computer: macOS / Linux or Windows. It is shown only once, so copy it now.
  5. On a computer that stays on and sits on the same network as the printers, open Terminal (on Windows, PowerShell), paste the line and press Enter.
  6. Wait for the message that the agent is running. On a Mac, allow access to the local network when asked.
  7. Open Printers: the agent’s version shows at the top, and the cards start showing live status.

Worth knowing: Live status needs an IP address on each printer. On a Mac, click Allow when macOS asks about the local network; the agent then runs from the menu bar. Lost the line? Rotate the token to get a new one; the old agent stops.

Step 2

Put your filament in

This is what makes every price afterwards true. The software works out what a print costs from the spool it came off, so the cost of a job is real rather than a guess.

The warehouse page, with the controls these steps name numbered on it

Add a filament type

Tell the app which filaments you use: brand, material, colour and the usual price. Every spool on the shelf belongs to a type.

  1. In the menu, open Warehouse, then Filament.
  2. Press New type at the top of the page.
  3. Choose the brand in Vendor / brand. Not in the list? Pick Other (type your own)… and type the name.
  4. Choose the material in Filament type, for example PLA or PETG.
  5. Pick the colour in Catalog color, or type its name and hex code yourself.
  6. Check Price per kg. This is only the usual price: every delivery gets its own.
  7. Press New type at the bottom of the window. The type is saved.

Worth knowing: A type holds no stock by itself. To put spools on the shelf, receive a delivery of it next.

Receive a filament delivery

Bought a box of spools? Put it on the shelf so the app knows what you have and what you paid for it.

  1. In the menu, open Warehouse, then Filament.
  2. Press Receive stock.
  3. In the first line, choose the filament in Pick a filament…. Its usual price fills in by itself.
  4. Enter Weight of one spool, g and How many arrived, for example 1000 g and 5.
  5. In Price per kg, put what this delivery really cost.
  6. Leave Spool if the filament came on spools, or choose Refill for bare refills.
  7. Bought several filaments at once? Press Add and fill in a line for each.
  8. Press Receive stock at the bottom. The spools appear in the list as sealed.

Worth knowing: Is the filament missing from the list? Add its type first. Sealed spools do not go to orders until you open them.

Step 3

Add the first thing you sell

A model with its print time and what it weighs. That is everything needed to price it, and you only do this once per product.

The print models page, with the controls these steps name numbered on it

Add a print model

Describe a model once: how many pieces fit on the bed, how long it prints and how much filament it takes. Every order is priced from it.

  1. In the menu, open Print models.
  2. Press Add.
  3. On the Model tab, type the Model name and choose the Default printer it is usually printed on.
  4. Open the Plates tab. Enter Objects per print run, how many come off one print, and the Print time.
  5. Under Filament, pick the filament, type how many grams one print takes and press the plus.
  6. Check Time and filament per machine: the card for your printer opens by itself. Print it on other machines too? Add them there with their own time.
  7. Uses magnets or packaging? Add them on the Consumables tab.
  8. Press Create.

Worth knowing: A model with no time for a printer takes no orders on that printer. You can add the figures later on the model’s page with Edit.

Step 4

Open a page people can order from

A public page with your items on it. You get a link to send; an order placed there lands in your queue with the buyer attached. No website to build.

The storefront page, with the controls these steps name numbered on it 12312

Open your online storefront

A public page with the items you sell. Buyers order there, and the order lands in your queue.

  1. In the menu, open Storefront.
  2. 1 Open the Shop page tab and choose the Address of your shop page.
  3. Fill in How to pay: the buyer sees it after ordering. Press Save.
  4. 2 On the Items tab, press Add and choose a model.
  5. In its card, switch on Show on the storefront, set the Price and press Save.
  6. 3 On the Delivery tab, switch on the ways you deliver, choose who pays for each and press Save.
  7. If there is a Payments tab, connect your account there to be paid on the page itself. Leave it alone to settle with buyers yourself.
  8. Switch the shop on at the top: Storefront is closed turns into Storefront is open.

Worth knowing: Copy the address or the QR code from the top card and put it in your social profile. An item shows only when it is switched on and has a price.

Add photos, size and material to an item

A buyer judges a printed piece by its photos and its size, and a colour looks right only in its own photo.

  1. In the menu, open Storefront.
  2. 2 Open the Items tab and press Product card next to an item.
  3. In Photos, press Add photo and pick a photo. An item takes up to six with the cover.
  4. Under Photo for each colour, choose the photo each colour opens on.
  5. In Size and material, fill in the width, depth and height in millimetres. Change the material only when the plastic needs a better word.
  6. Press Save.

Worth knowing: Photos are stored the moment you pick them; the colour photos, the size and the material wait for the card to be saved. The choice of a photo per colour appears once an item has two colours and more than one photo. The cover is the model's picture until you replace it with your own photo or star one of the others; the model keeps its picture in the workshop either way.

Step 5

Take the first order out of the door

Accept it, print it, send it. The queue tracks what is paid, what is printing and what is waiting on you.

The orders page, with the controls these steps name numbered on it

Answer a storefront order

Every new storefront order in one list, each answered in one tap.

  1. In the menu, open Storefront.
  2. On the Orders tab, press Confirm beside an order to keep an order: the buyer gets a letter and the order stays New on the board.
  3. Press Decline to turn one down: give the reason, and the units go back on the shelf while the buyer is told.
  4. To talk first, call, or press Telegram or Email: your payment details go with the message.

Worth knowing: An order nobody answers is cancelled when its hold runs out. "Waiting for you" at the top counts the ones still open.

Send a parcel with Nova Poshta

Create the waybill straight from the order and send the customer the tracking number.

  1. Open the order: press its card on the board or in History.
  2. In Payment & delivery, press Create waybill.
  3. Check the Recipient, Phone and branch: they come from the client.
  4. Enter the Weight, and the Size, of the box.
  5. The customer pays on receipt? Fill in Cash on delivery. Choose who pays for delivery in Delivery paid by.
  6. Press Create waybill. The waybill number is ready to send to the customer.

Worth knowing: The button appears once Nova Poshta is connected in the workspace settings and the order is saved. Nova Poshta is for workspaces in Ukraine.

So how much will you make?

We are not going to print a number here. What one printer earns depends on your filament, your electricity, your machine and what you choose to sell, and anybody quoting you a monthly figure has guessed at all four. Put your own numbers into the calculator instead - it works out the cost of a print from your spool price and your power tariff, and shows what is left at the price you were thinking of charging.

Work out your numbers

Ready to see what your printers actually make?

Connect your printers, load your spools, and see the true margin on every job - your workspace is live in minutes.

Start free workspace →Try the demo →